USA > Indiana > History of the One hundred and sixty-first regiment, Indiana volunteer infantry > Part 12
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Moved by these sentiments, we, the officers of the regiment, offer you the following resolutions.
The following resolutions were then read and handed to the colonel:
WHEREAS, The One Hundred and Sixty-first Regiment of Indiana Volunteer Infantry has been brought to a high degree of efficiency through the energetic and telling efforts of Colonel Winfield T. Durbin. Therefore be it
Resolved, Ist, That we, the officers of the regiment, express to Colonel Durbin our friendship, loyalty and grati- tude for his untiring devotion to the welfare of his com- mand.
2d, That we are profoundly grateful to him for the sacrifices he has made in response to the dictates of patri-
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otism and for his many acts of kindness and consideration shown us.
3d, That in the muster out of the regiment, the Volunteer Army loses a faithful, energetic and able com- manding officer; the officers and men a true and noble friend.
4th, That though he is called upon to lay aside the habiliments of a soldier for duties of a citizen, we wish him unbounded success in civil pursuits, and that our hearts will ever be with him.
LEE M. OLDS,
RICHARD W. BUCHANAN, JOHN R. WARD, OLIVER M. TICHENOR, JAMES W. FORTUNE, Committee on Resolutions.
It was evident that these words had gone to the right spot and moved the colonel with deep feeling, and after a moment's pause he responded with words of thanks and ap- preciation for what, he said, he felt was more than he de- served. The men went back to their tents and after sup- per every one sat up long into the hours of night reluctant to retire because they knew it was the last night they would sleep as soldiers. The tension of strict discipline was of course relaxed and the first half of the night was made noisy with the songs of happy soldiers, and only when the repertoire of familiar songs was exhausted, the past ten months retrospected, and the future prospected, did the men roll into their blankets for the purpose of trying to sleep till morning.
Early in the day that followed, the big affair began. Talk about hustling -- the day saw it in all its fury. The place was turned into a scene much like a county fair.
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Peddlers of every description were on hand. Trunk selling was the chief paying business, and before the camp was up great piles of trunks had been hauled into the grounds and arranged by sizes ready for the men to take their pick. Waterman had a special tent in a conspucious place, and his big sign for Cuban photographs helped his business out and the side show appearance of the affair as well. On three of the headquarters tents were huge colored signs telling the boys where to get their tickets while the ticket wagon was ready to wait on all who were going direct home.
Aunt Chloe was there with her melodious voice cry- ing "nice cool lemonade, two glasses for five," while another with huskier tones cried, " hyar's de place whar you git your lemon pies; dey is as fresh as you make 'em an dey haint no joke 'bout dat neither." Other edibles were carried about mixed up with sand that filled the baskets because of a spanking wind that whizzed around the tents and peppered everything with flying dust. At every tent door was a sable face inquiring if dey was any old thing de sol- dier wa'nt gwine to tote up north; and the old Confederate loon was there cackling for a nickle, and if he got it he God-blessed you and said you had a true soldier's heart for helping a poor old Confed., and if he didn't get it he said it the other way and said you had a stingy heart like every other d -- d Yankee in the army. The photograph man was there, the venders of relics and of parrots were there, and of canaries and dogs too, all warranted to have come from Cuba. Three paymasters were on the ground, one in each of the battalion commander's tents.
Promptly at 9 o'clock the procession began. It was started by Company A. They lined up by the mustering- out office, the captain called the roll and each man cried "here" and stepped out at the sound of his name to fall in a new double rank forming at right angles to the first -- this
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was all-he was mustered out. Then in line for his pay; then at the proper place for his railroad ticket and off to the city to await the starting of the train to Washington. It was I o'clock before the staff and band were paid; the camp was rapidly being deserted, hacks were in demand and the once private was as swell as the swellest in his transit to the city.
One by one with a parting glance the soldiers left the place-camp life was over, a strange feeling filled the men -- no one could say "do this" or "do that " and every one did what he chose to do.
For an hour a great crowd of soldiers surged about the Plant System depot. Those unable to get tickets at camp after much trying of the patience, got them here. The fact is, the regiment had too much executive ability that worked too well for the railroads. They did not under- stand how it could be done and were not prepared to take their part as per agreed calculations.
At 2:10 P. M. the first section moved. It carried Companies A, I, L and M; also Colonel Durbin, Majors Smith and Olds and Lieutenants Brunt and Tichenor. The second section started at 2:40 P. M., loaded with Companies F, G, H and C; Major Megrew, Lieutenant Wilson and Chaplain Biederwolf accompanied this section. The third section left soon after, carrying Lieutenant- Colonel Backus, Lieutenant Gerrish and the remaining companies.
Three trains full of happy soldiers-a few happy sol- diers full too, but in general an orderly set of fellows who did not steal silver spoons from railway restaurants and always paid for what they ate-three big crowds of happy Hoosiers on their way to Washington-alas so soon to be disappointed! It was very evident we had met our Water- loo simply because an honorable contract was made with a
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concern that had no conscience. The railroad concern had no intention of carrying out their contract; it was a shameful robbery by an unprincipled management. The baggage car arrangement for preparing coffee was a decep- tion; water and other needful things could not be pro- cured half of the time, but all the inconveniences could have been endured with little complaint had any effort been made to get the train to its destination with any rea- sonable limit of the appointed time. The trains dragged along the rails at a freight train rate and side tracked for everything that had a whistle to it, and instead of arriving at Washington at 9 A. M., the first section pulled in at 4:30 P. M., the second two hours later, and the third corres- pondingly behind the second. Great preparations had been made for the reception; crowds had gathered around the White House long before noon and waited until long in the afternoon, and after waiting in vain they left the place where the reception was to occur-the regiment did not come. The Indianans at Washington were as disappointed as the regiment; they had taken much pains in the matter and were going to do the affair in a way worthy of Hoosiers, but the railroad had the soldiers' money and it was no con- cern of theirs when the soldiers got to the place they had paid to go. However, had the regiment arrived on time a disappointment would still have been in store for it. Every arrangement had been made as Colonel Durbin had announced, but unforeseen circumstances prevented Presi- dent Mckinley from returning to the capital on the day appointed for the reveiw.
The following telegrams will be of interest in this con- nection :
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" WASHINGTON, D. C,, April 29, 1899.
"To Colonel 1 .rbin, One Hundred and Sixty-first Indi- ana Volunteer Infantry, Savannah, Georgia.
" Upon arrival of your regiment at Washington, Presi- dent will review it at portico of White House, and after- wards receive members in the east room of the executive mansion; please give early notification of time of depart- ure, route traveled and expected hour of arrival in Wash- ington. Acknowledge.
" HEISTAND, Assistant Adjutant-General."
On the train going to Washington the colonel received the following not far from Fredericksburg:
" WASHINGTON, D. C., May 1, 1899.
"Colonel Durbin: Your telegram stating you will arrive at 4 o'clock received. The President is unavoidably detained in New York and will not be home until to-mor- row. Secretary of War also absent from city. These facts are communicated to you to enable you to determiue upon your line of action. Acknowledge receipt.
"HEISTAND, Assistant Adjutant-General."
The pleasure and satisfaction of the review would thus have failed the regiment in any event of arrival, but the rest of an interesting program could have been car- ried out much to the satisfaction of all concerned. The first section was met by the marine band and escorted to the White House. Before entering the colonel told the men of his own bitter disappointment, which was perhaps greater than that of the men.
The second section came in not long before the first was ready to depart, and later the third. The first section left about 7 o'clock. The men of the other sections spent some time about the city, and near midnight and morning started west, the trains breaking up at Cincinnati and
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Louisville. Company M left the first section at Cin- cinnati and Companies I, L and A ca'me off to Indianapolis with the colonel. Expected here in the evening as per scheduled time, again extensive preparations were made for the reception of these three companies. In the State House a stand trimmed with the colors had been erected for music and speakers, a supper had been prepared and waiting for the train that did not come was next in order. Early in the morning we awoke and found that the train had actually arrived in Indianapolis. At 6 A. M. the boys marched to the State House where the good ladies who had lost all the night's sleep waiting, had come at this early hour to give the boys their breakfast. The boys were ravenously hungry and after being assured that any one of them who choked to death would be given a pen- sion, they went at the table in a way that always pleases a woman when she has worked hard to prepare a good meal. Breakfast, over Governor Mount, who, with his good wife, had come so early to the State House to meet the boys, stood to address them. He told the men how proud the state was of the regiment to which they had belonged, and gave them in the name of the commonwealth a cor- dial welcome home. Colonel Durbin responded, first thanking the ladies for their goodness and then emphasizing the fact that the regiment had tried to do its duty well; he then presented to the state through the Governor the regi- mental colors and the flag. Governor Mount briefly responded, telling the men the flags would be kept in the State House where, when in the city, they could come and look upon them. Senator Fairbanks then spoke briefly and after the men made the marble corriders ring and echo with rousing cheers, they went slowly back to their train.
From this time on the experience of one company was the experience of them all, and something like the experi-
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ence of Company Q, of the Two Hundredth Indiana, in which Si Klegg was a corporal. "The Company Q boys received an overpowering welcome at home. The people from the village and the adjacent country turned out en masse to greet them as they alighted from the train. Farmer Klegg and his wife and Maria, proud and eager, were there; and joyful tears flowed unchecked as they twined their arms around son and brother and pressed him to their beating hearts. Annabel was there, with moist eyes and a flush upon her soft cheek.
Si had grown brave now, and as soon as the family embrace relaxed he advanced and put his arms around her as unflinchingly as if she had been a rebel battery.
Tumultuous cheers rent the air, the band played and banners waved in honor of the soldiers' return from the war.
A sumptuous dinner was served to them in the town hall, and the village orators exhausted their eloquence in giving them welcome and glorifying their deeds of valor.
By the time the speakers got through, the veterans were pretty well convinced that if it had not been for Company Q the war would have been a failure-on the Union side.
Then the boys were taken in charge by their respect- ive friends. In anticipation of Si's return, his mother and sister had for days done little except cook, and he found himself in a land flowing with milk and honey.
That night Si had the "best bed " in the house. As he threw himself upon it he sank down in a sea of feathers that almost covered him. Of course he could not sleep in such a bed, and in the morning when his mother went to call him to breakfast, she was amazed to find him lying on the floor. "Tell ye what 'tis mother," he said, "I didn't like ter go back on yer nice bed, but 'twa'n't no use. I swum 'round 'n them fethers purty much all night, but I couldn't
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git to sleep t'll I bunked down on the floor. That's a leetle more like the beds I slep on 'n the army. I b'liev t'night I'll rig up a pup tent, put down some rails ter lie on, 'n take my old U. S. blanket 'n crawl in."
This is all pretty much right, but the pup-tent and the rail racket-just put up a common A tent and put down some Florida pine and we guarantee the boys will sleep, though feather beds aint so bad to swim around in either. We wish every man who fell a victim to the connubial epidemic all the success that Si had and in the walks of civil life health, happiness and prosperity. The habiliment of a soldier has been laid aside for the apparel of a citizen; the thought of citizenship should come to every member of the One Hundred and Sixty-first with a profounder meaning because of this experience in the service. So glorious has been the past of the American Republic, so significant is its present, so grand is its prospect that to be a citizen of such a nation is a proud distinction.
No time in all its history has the nation needed more men of sterling worth than in this present time; with the glory of victory adding fresh luster to its flag of stars and stripes there has come an added burden and consequent responsibility of government that shall strain every fiber and tax every energy of this nation we proudly call our own. Questions are about to arise involving the most enormous interests, and if the true force of manhood and right citizenship is not brought to bear upon them they will be solved by those with baser motives than ought to prompt a man of genuine patriotism, and in it all the honor of the nation is at stake; and as we have done our duty well wherever duty called, as the excellent esprit de corps that has moulded our experience as soldiers has brought to us the highest commendation that could rest
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upon such a body of men, so let us follow the walks of civil life, giving to our nation and to our state our best thought, our best interest and unselfish endeavor, counting it always a high privilege to serve a flag the most beau- tiful, the most noble and the most powerful that ever kissed the sunshine of God, OLD GLORY, THE FLAG OF THE STARS AND STRIPES.
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COLONEL WINFIELD T. DURBIN.
Winfield T. Durbin, of Anderson, was the man upon whom was placed the honor and the responsibility of com- manding the last regiment of men that went out from In- diana. The glory of what a thing becomes belongs sever- ally to those whose influence helps to shape it and the enviable reputation acquired by the One Hundred and Sixty- first Indiana belongs in a degree to every man, be he an officer or private, who took a pride in his regiment and tried to do his duty well for his regiment and for his coun- try's sake, but the man who occupies the place of greatest responsibility, the man upon whose mind depend the ideals toward which an institution shapes itself and upon whose ability to execute depends the final approach to those ideals is the man to whom the greatest honor must fall when he proves himself worthy of his position. A regiment is gen- erally and to a great degree always what its commanding officer makes it and the fact that the regiment whose supe- rior officer was Winfield T. Durbin stood so high in the estimation of the highest army officials, that it was worthy of such recognition as that given by the honorable secre- tary of war, when he declared concerning the cleanliness and condition of the One Hundred and Sixty-first Indiana camp that "it wasa revelation," a " marvel," and in a pub- lic manner declared on the reviewing field and twice after- ward that the regiment was the finest he had ever seen, - this fact certainly does reflect the greatest honor on the man who controlled its movements and accordingly made its name a reminder of all that a body of thirteen hundred soldiers ought to become.
Colonel Durbin did not seek the position; the posi- tion was seeking for the man, and it found him puzzled over some needed repairs amid the noise and rattle of
COLONEL WINFIELD T. DURBIN.
ONI 161
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machinery in the works of the Diamond Paper Company at Anderson. The call came quick and unexpected. His wife and son were on the Continent; without the possibility of consulting them or apprising them of his intention, he decided; he did not leave his plow standing in the field, but he did leave the old smashed up engine lying in the factory and started for the capital city of his state whence he had been called. The CALL was his marching orders. Colonel Durbin was born at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, May 4, 1847, when he was but three years old his parents moved to New Philadelphia, and there he spent hisearly days, securing such educational advantages as were offered by the village schools of his boyhood home. He was fourteen years of age when the Civil war began; one by one he saw his five older brothers enlist to fight for the Union, and his young heart stirred him to offer himself. Accordingly in 1862 he endeavored to enlist in the Sixteenth Indiana, but owing to temporary disability was not accepted, but went with the regiment and participated with it through part of the Vicksburg campaign, rendering good service in the bat- tles of Vicksburg, Arkansas Post and elsewhere. He then enlisted in the One Hundred and Thirty-ninth Indiana. This was in the following year, 1863, and at the close of war he remained for four years with his father who was at that time engaged in the tanning business. In 1869, a young man of twenty-two, he went to Indianapolis and entered upon a clerkship in one of the city's large jobbing dry goods establishments; he held position with the firm for ten years, and when at the expiration of this time he was prepared to leave, he had by his faithful industry and business ability become the head manager of the office force.
On the 6th of October, 1875, he married Miss Bertha Mccullough, of Anderson and went in 1879 to the city of
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his bride to engage in mercantile and banking pursuits. That he was a successful business man his present connec- tion with the business interests of that place fully attest. He is president of the Anderson Foundry and Machine Works, vice president of the J. W. Sefton Manufacturing Company, and general manager and treasurer of the Dia- mond Paper Company.
For six years he was a school trustee of Anderson during which time he materially aided in the erection of several of the finest school buildings in the state.
No figure has been more prominent in political circles during the past fifteen years than Colonel Durbin; his fine executive ability and sound judgment has placed him in constant demand of his party. He was a presidental elec- tor in 1888, a delegate to the National Republican conven- tion at Minnaepolis in 1892, and was chairman of the com- mittee that notified Whitelaw Reid of his nomination to the Vice Presidency. He was also a delegate to the same convention in St. Louis in 1896. He is now a member of the national Republican committee for Indiana and a member of the executive committee.
Colonel Durbin always had a high ideal for his regi- ment and was solicitous for its interests in every particu- lar; he so placed this ideal before the men until every pri- vate had taken unusual pride in the appearance and repu- tation of his organization. The health of the men was always a subject of deep concern on the colonel's part; he used every precautionary means to keep the camp in the best possible sanitary condition, attending in person with the surgeon on his tours of camp inspection, and in Jack- sonville when malarial indisposition rendered so many of the men unfit for duty, scarce sick enough to be sent to the hospital, yet needing special nourishment and more com- fortable sleeping quarters, Colonel Durbin at his own ex-
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pense erected what might be called a recuperation hospital, a large and substantial frame building, into which the men were sent and where cots and milk diet, so far as the latter was procurable, were furnished them.
Colonel Durbin did not know the men personally; and consequetly there was no partiality and no favors for special ones, but the humblest private was always welcome to his tent and men who may have hesitated to approach him always came away feeling they had been treated with all due kindness on the part of their regimental commander.
He is versatile and a man of jovial disposition, but could be stern to severity when, in his judgment, it be- came necessary, and under such circumstances when he spoke every one knew that he meant what he said and he was obeyed. That the regiment has received its well- known recognition and its favors the men have always felt has been due to the influence of the man at its head.
At the organization of the Society of the Seventh Army Corps March 25, 1899, Colonel Durbin was chosen a member of the executive council.
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OLIVER M. TICHENOR.
Oliver M. Tichenor, first lieutenant and adjutant, was one of the regiment's busy men. No commission less than a captain's should ever be given an adjutant. This ener-
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OLIVER M. TICHENOR.
getic young officer was born near Princeton, Indiana, April 21, 1864. He received the excellent training that is found in farm life, and entering Princeton's high school, graduated
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in 1883. He was at once appointed deputy treasurer of Gibson county. From 1889 until 1894 he held the posi- tion of postmaster at Princeton, and then for four years traveled as freight and passenger agent of the Peoria, Decatur & Evansville railroad, which position he resigned to accept the appointment of chief deputy collector of internal revenue, and July 12, 1898, he placed in the hands. of his employer his resignation that he might accept the commission urged upon him in which he was made adju- tant of the One Hundred and Sixty-first Indiana Volunteer Infantry.
Lieutenant Tichenor was journal clerk of the Indiana legislature in 1886-7, and but for his youth would doubt- less have been elected to the clerkship of the supreme court of Indiana, for which position he was a candidate in 1894.
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JOHN RICH BRUNT.
First Lieutenant and Quartermaster John Rich Brunt is a man fitted for the responsible position he held by a life of varied business experiences. He was born in Madison
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JOHN RICH BRUNT.
county, Indiana, July 29, 1845, and is consequently the oldest man in the regiment. His grandfather was Nathan Lee, of Virginia, and was killed in the war of 1812 at
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Sackett's Harbor. When twenty years old Lieutenant Brunt went into what was then the far west, where for five years he remained, leading the life of a hunter and scout. It was his intention to return for a collegiate course, but the fascination of frontier life changed that intention, and until 1870 he was a scout and guide. In this year he was united in marriage to Miss Lois C. Vanlandingham, daugh- ter of a cousin to Hon. Clement L. Vanlandingham. After his marriage he gave up the adventurous life he was lead- ing and became bookkeeper and manager for a railroad con- tractor at what afterwards became Chanute, Kansas, in which place Lieutenant Brunt built the first house ever erected. He then served four years as under sheriff at Osage Mission, Neosho county, Kansas, and followed this by a four years' term in office as sheriff. He then embarked in business at the same place, and a few years later bought the Neosho County Journal, which he successfully managed for eight years. During Cleveland's first administration Lieutenant Brunt was postmaster at Osage Mission.
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